I was surprised to see Shinjuku Gyoen was free to the public. I still need to come three more times to make my annual pass worthwhile haha.

Shinobu and Deneys each came ahead of time; Nathan and his friend Hai came exactly at 1pm. The crowds were amazing and we found ourselves in a shaded space on a slight hill.

You can see a bit behind me how crowded it was in the park, despite covid-19 shutting down other countries.

Special thanks to Bu for taking photos and video during the meditation (“wasting time”, she calls it! haha).

We did not do a walking meditation as it was too crowded to even think of about walking mindfully.

During the meditation, I was facing away from the group because I was at the bottom of the hill, having arrived there first and making room for everyone, and not being able to sit meditatively facing uphill.

I should have made sure everyone could hear me, but it seemed to work out okay.

After a while, we headed out, seeing lots of sakura in the place.

On the way out of the park, I remembered to take a picture of our group.

Thanks to Bu for taking the photo!

I don’t remember if that was before or after Nathan and Hai practiced jiu jitsu. We clapped afterward.